Throughout the history of sports, coaches and players have looked wherever they could for motivation from outside sources. In a lot of cases, that place ends up being their own active imagination — like Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen calling out all the “doubters” after his team’s AFC Divisional Round win over the Baltimore Ravens.
For the Washington Commanders and first year head coach Dan Quinn, no such imagination has been needed. The Commanders had a projected over/under win total of 6.5 wins headed into the 2024 regular season and wound up going 12-5 and advancing to the NFC Championship Game.
For Quinn and his team, motivation has been everywhere they turned, and never more so after a 37-20, season-opening loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on September 8 — a loss the Commanders would avenge with a 23-20 road win in the NFC Wild Card Round.
“I felt some kind of way (after the Buccaneers loss) … It was we’re going to be a lot better than what we just showed today,” Quinn told ESPN’s John Keim on January 22. “And eventually we’ll show that. So not to prove it to everybody else or underdog stories, it’s how we get down.”
Quinn and the Commanders will once again have the world seemingly against them in the NFC Championship Game at the Philadelphia Eagles on January 26, where the Eagles are 6-point favorites.
Commanders Playing Best Football at Right Time
The Commanders are playing their best football at the right time, as evidenced by their shocking, 45-31 upset of the No. 1 seed Detroit Lions in the NFC Divisional Round — a resounding win over the Super Bowl favorites on their home field.
Quinn and general manager Adam Peters breathed new life into their franchise by selecting LSU quarterback and 2023 Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels at No. 2 overall in the 2024 NFL draft and watching him become one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks as a rookie.
Now, they’re in the NFC Championship Game for the first time since the 1991 season and one win away from one of the most unlikely Super Bowl appearances of all time.
Quinn Getting Second Chance as Head Coach
That Quinn is back in this position has probably come as a surprise to some after he oversaw one of the more epic coaching meltdowns of all time as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI.
The Falcons, who were trying to win the first Super Bowl in franchise history, led the Patriots 28-3 midway through the third quarter only to lose 34-28 in overtime in the largest comeback in Super Bowl history and the first Super Bowl to go to overtime.
While Quinn was eventually fired in 2020 after an 0-5 start, the damage from that Super Bowl loss still hangs over Atlanta’s franchise and Quinn had to rebuild his career as the defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys over the next 3 seasons — 3 seasons in which the Cowboys went 12-5 each year and had one of the NFL’s best defenses.
In their first year without Quinn, the Cowboys went 7-10, missed the playoffs and head coach Mike McCarthy wasn’t brought back.
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Commanders HC Dan Quinn Sends 4-Word Message Before NFC Championship